elf
into two parts: the first, in which Ligeia was alive, terminated with
her death; and the second, in which she was dead, ended with her
resurrection.

Having thus arrived at the main outline of his plot, Poe was next
forced to decide on the point of view from which the story should be
told. Under the existing conditions, any one of three distinct points
of view may have seemed, at the first glance, available: that of the
chief character, that of the secondary character, and that of an
external omniscient personality. But only a little consideration was
necessary to show that only one of these three could successfully be
employed. Obviously, the story could not be narrated by Ligeia: for it
would be awkward to let an extraordinary woman discourse about her own
unusual qualities; and furthermore, she could hardly narrate a story
involving as one of its chief features her stay among the dead without
being expected to tell the secrets of her prison-house. It was
likewise impossible to tell the tale from the point of view of an
external omniscient personality. In order that the final and
miraculous incident might seem convincing, it had to be narrated not
impersonally but personally, not externally but by an eye-witness.
Therefore, the story must, of course, be told by the husband of
Ligeia.

At this point the main outline was completed. It then became
necessary for Poe to plan the two divisions of the story in detail.
In the first part, no action was necessary, and very little
attention had to be paid to setting. It was essential that all of
the writer's stress should be laid on the element of character; for
the sole purpose of this initial division of the story must be to
produce upon the reader an extremely emphatic impression of the
extraordinary personality of Ligeia. As soon as the reader could be
sufficiently impressed with the force of her character, she must be
made to die; and the first part of the story would be finished. But
at this point Poe was obliged to choose between the direct and the
indirect means of delineating character. Should Ligeia be depicted
directly by her husband, or indirectly, through her own speech? In
other words, should this first half of the story be a description
or a conversation? The matter was easy to decide. The method of
conversation was unavailable; because a dialogue between Ligeia and
her husband would keep the attention of the reader hovering from one
to the other, whereas